Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski and partner Luisa Stefani are headed to the final at the Wuhan Open after cruising past the team of Cristina Busca and Nicole Melichar-Martinez 6-1, 6-2 in the semifinal early Saturday morning.
Dabrowski and Stefani entered the tournament as the number one seeds after their victory last weekend at the China Open in Beijing. It was the 25th WTA doubles title of the Canadian’s career.
The pair will now compete for their sixth doubles title of the season in tomorrow’s final.
Read also: Dabrowski, Stefani beat top seeds Siniakova, Zhang to win China Open
The match got off to a fast start, with Dabrowski and Stefani opening with a hold and then quickly earning their first break of the match to open a 2-0 lead. Bucsa and Melichar-Martinez responded right away with a break and hold of their own to even the set. It appeared that Dabrowski and Stefani were letting control of the match slip away, but the top-seeded team would take over from there.
The China Open winners would deny triple break point in the next game to regain momentum with a hard-fought hold and would go on to sweep the rest of the set, including another pair of successful breaks, to take the first 6-2.
The second set would begin the same way as the first, with Dabrowski and Stefani opening with a strong hold and break, followed by Bucsa and Melichar-Martinez breaking back to close the deficit. This time, the top seeds would not allow their opponents to get any closer and would dominate the next four games to finish off the set and match 6-1.
Dabrowski and Stefani forced 14 break points in the victory, converting six in the match that took just over one hour.
They could be in line for a second-straight final against Katerina Siniakova, the top women’s doubles player in the world, as she and partner Storm Hunter take on the Italian team of Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini later this morning.
Dabrowski and Stefani have already clinched their spot at the WTA Finals at Indian Wells, where they will make their first appearance as a team, though both women have experienced success at the event. Dabrowski won the WTA Finals alongside Erin Routliffe in 2024, while Stefani reached the final last season.
Read also: Fernandez’s Wuhan Run Ends in Round Three to Ostapenko
Feature Photo: WTA
